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Central Bureau of Investigation
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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is India's premier investigating agency, responsible for a wide variety of criminal and national security matters. It was established on 1 April, 1963 and evolved from the Special Police Establishment founded in 1941.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is controlled by the Department of Personnel and Training in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension of the Union Government usually headed by a Minister of State who reports directly to the Prime Minister.
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Encyclopedia
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is India's premier investigating agency, responsible for a wide variety of criminal and national security matters. It was established on 1 April, 1963 and evolved from the Special Police Establishment founded in 1941.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is controlled by the Department of Personnel and Training in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension of the Union Government usually headed by a Minister of State who reports directly to the Prime Minister. While analogous in structure to the FBI, the CBI's powers and function are severely limited to specific crimes based on Acts (mainly the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946). The CBI is the official Interpol unit for India.The current director of CBI is Ashwani Kumar (since August 02, 2008).
Introduction
The Central Bureau of Investigation [???????? ???? ??????] traces its origin to the Special Police Establishment (SPE) [????? ????? ????????] which was set up in 1941 by the Government of India. The functions of the SPE then were to investigate cases of bribery and corruption in transactions with the War & Supply Deptt. Of India during World War II. Superintendent of the SPE was vested with the War Department.
Even after the end of the War, the need for a Central Government agency to investigate cases of bribery and corruption by Central Government employees was felt. The Delhi Special Police Establishment Act was therefore brought into force in 1946. This Act transferred the superintendence of the SPE to the Home Department and its functions were enlarged to cover all departments of the Govt. of India. The jurisdiction of the SPE extended to all the Union Territories and could be extended also to the States with the consent of the State Government concerned.
Founder Director
The founder director of the CBI was D.P. Kohli who held office from 1 April 1963 to 31 May 1968. Before this, he was Inspector-General of Police of the Special Police Establishment from 1955 to 1963. Before that he held responsible positions in police in Madhya Bharat, Uttar Pradesh and Govt. of India. He was Police Chief in Madhya Bharat before joining the SPE. Kohli was awarded 'Padma Bhushan' in 1967 for his distinguished services.
Kohli was a visionary who saw in the Special Police Establishment the potential of growing into the national investigative agency. He nurtured the organisation during his long stint as Inspector General and as Director and laid the solid foundation on which the organisation grew over the decades to become what it is today.
CBI takes shape
As the CBI, over the years, established a reputation of being India's premier investigative agency with adequate resources to deal with complicated cases, demands were made on it to take up investigation of more cases of conventional crime such as murder, kidnapping, terrorism, etc. Apart from this, the Supreme court and even the various High Courts of the country also started entrusting such cases for investigation to the CBI on petitions filed by aggrieved parties. Taking into account the fact that several cases falling under this category were being taken up for investigation by the CBI, it was found expedient to entrust such cases to the Branches having local jurisdiction.
It was therefore decided in 1987 to constitute two investigation divisions in the CBI, namely, Anti-Corruption Division and Special Crimes Division, the latter dealing with cases of conventional crime, besides economic offences. The CBI is a central subject under the Constitution of India, meaning that it reports to the Indian Government and not to the individual states.
Role and Functions
The CBI is the premier investigating police agency in India. It is an elite force playing a major role in preservation of values in public life and in ensuring the health of the national economy. It is also the nodal police agency in India which coordinates investigation on behalf of Interpol Member countries.
The services of its investigating officers are sought for all major investigations in the country. CBI as an organisation is held in high esteem by the Supreme Court, the High Courts, the Parliament and the public. The CBI has to investigate major crimes in the country having interstate and international ramifications. It is also involved in collection of criminal intelligence pertaining to three of its main areas of operation, viz., Anti-Corruption, Economic Crimes and Special Crimes.
CBI investigations have a major impact on the political and economic life of the nation. The following broad categories of criminal cases are handled by the CBI:
- Cases of corruption and fraud committed by public servants of all Central Govt. Departments, Central Public Sector Undertakings and Central Financial Institutions.
- Economic crimes, including bank frauds, financial frauds, Import Export & Foreign Exchange violations, large-scale smuggling of narcotics, antiques, cultural property and smuggling of other contraband items etc.
- Special Crimes, such as cases of terrorism, bomb blasts, sensational homicides, kidnapping for ransom and crimes committed by the mafia/the underworld.
Structure of CBI
The CBI is headed by a Director. The other important ranks in the CBI are Special Director, Additional Director, Joint Director, Deputy Inspector General of Police,Sr. Superintendent of Police, Superintendent of Police, Additional Superintendent of Police, Dy. Superintendent of Police, Inspector, Sub-Inspector, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Head Constable and Constable.
Jurisdiction Powers, privileges and liabilities
The legal powers of investigation of CBI are derived from the DSPE Act 1946. This Act confers concurrent and coextensive powers, duties, privileges and liabilities on the members of Delhi Special Police Establishment (CBI) with Police Officers of the Union Territories. The Central Government may extend to any area, besides Union Territories, the powers and jurisdiction of members of the CBI for investigation subject to the consent of the Government of the concerned State Govt. While exercising such powers, members of the CBI of or above the rank of Sub Inspector shall be deemed to be officers incharge of Police Stations of respective jurisdictions. The CBI can investigate only such of the offences as are notified by the Central Government under the DSPE Act.
Jurisdiction of CBI vis-a-vis State Police
Law and Order is a State subject and the basic jurisdiction to investigate crime lies with State Police. Besides, due to limited resources, CBI would not be able to investigate crimes of all kind. CBI may investigate:
- Cases which are essentially against Central Govt. employees or concerning affairs of the Central Govt. and the employees of the Central Public Sector Underatkings and Public Sector Banks.
- Cases in which the financial interests of the Central Government are involved.
- Cases relating to the breaches of Central Laws with the enforcement of which the Government of India is mainly concerned.
- Big cases of fraud, cheating, embezzlement and the like relating to companies in which large funds are involved and similar other cases when committed by organised gangs or professional criminals having ramifications in several States.
- Cases having interstate and international ramifications and involving several official agencies where, from all angles, it is considered necessary that a single investigating agency should be incharge of the investigation.
Former Directors
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| Late D P Kohli
01/04/63 - 31/05/68 | F V Arul
31/05/68 - 06/05/71 | D Sen
06/05/71 - 29/03/77 | S N Mathur
29/03/77 - 02/05/77 | C V Narsimhan
02/05/77 - 25/11/77 | | John Lobo
25/11/77 - 30/06/79 | R D Singh
30/06/79 - 24/01/80 | J S Bawa
24/01/80 - 28/02/85 | M G Katre
28/02/85 - 31/10/89 | A P Mukherjee
31/10/89 - 11/01/90 | | R Sekhar
11/01/90 - 14/12/90 | Vijay Karan
14/12/90 - 01/06/92 | S K Datta
01/06/92 - 31/07/93 | K Vijaya Rama Rao
31/07/93 - 31/07/96 | Joginder Singh
31/07/96 - 30/06/97 | | R C Sharma
30/06/97 - 31/01/98 | D R Karthikeyan
31/01/98 - 31/03/98 | T N Mishra
31/03/98 - 04/01/99 | R K Raghavan
04/01/99 - 30/04/01 | P C Sharma
30/04/01 - 06/12/03 | | U S Misra
06/12/03-06/12/05 | J K Dutt
06/12/05-12/12/05 | Vijay Shanker Mishra
12/12/05-31.07.08 | Ashwani Kumar
01.08.08- |
Controversies
Normally, cases assigned to the CBI are sensitive and of national importance. It is a usual practice for the respective state police departments, to initially register any case coming under its jurisdiction, and if necessary, through mediation by the central government, the cases may be transferred to the CBI. The CBI handles many high profile cases, and is never far from controversy.
Bofors issue
In January 2006, it was found that CBI had quietly unfrozen bank accounts of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, one of the prime accused in the Bofors scandal of 1986 which had tainted the Rajiv Gandhi government. The Central Bureau of Investigation has been responsible for the inquiry into the Bofors Case. Associates of the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi were linked to alleged pay-offs made in the mid-1980s by the Swedish arms form AB Bofors, with $40 million in kickbacks moved from Britain and Panama to secret Swiss banks. The $1,300 million arms purchase of 410 howitzer field guns involved in the sale were reported to be inferior to those offered by a French competitor.
ISRO spy ring case
In 1994 two scientists with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and two Indian businessmen were arrested for allegedly conspiring to sell space secrets to two Maldivian women, who were originally described by newspapers as agents of Pakistani intelligence, for money and sex. The CBI investigation did not reveal the existence of a spy ring, and by early 1995 it was clear that the case was more a product of inexperience and over exuberation on the part of the police and Intelligence Bureau.It was a well planned scheme to remove the then DGP Ramon S by concocted links to Maldivian lady. The scheme was plotted by some officers of Kerala police, the media and Muslim League as DGP was made of sterner stuff.
Hawala scandal
In 1991 an arrest linked to militants in Kashmir led to a raid on hawala brokers, revealing evidence of large-scale payments to national politicians. The prosecution that followed was partly prompted by a public interest petition (see Vineet Narain), and yet the court cases of the Hawala scandal eventually all collapsed without convictions. The CBI's role was again criticised. In concluding the Vineet Narain case, the Supreme Court of India directed that the Central Vigilance Commission should be given a supervisory role over the CBI.
Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case
The CBI has been under a cloud owing to its handling of the Priyadarshini Mattoo case, in which the alleged murderer of a 22-year old law student was acquitted for what the case judge called "deliberate inaction" by the investigating team. The accused was the son of a high ranking officer in the Indian Police Service, due to which
the case had been shifted from the regular police force to the CBI. However, the 1999 judgment commented on how "the influence of the father of the accused has been there".
Embarrassed by the judgment, the-then CBI Director, R K Raghavan, requested two Special Directors, P C Sharma and G H Achari, to study the judgement. Subsequently the CBI appealed the verdict in Delhi High court in 2000, after which the High Court issued a bailable warrant against the accused. The case again shot into limelight in 2006 after much media coverage and public bashing (this was mainly due to a similar acquittal in another high profile case though not handled by the CBI). The CBI filed an application for early hearing in July 2006. The High Court subsequently found Santosh Kumar Singh guilty of rape and murder and awarded death sentence for the same in October 2006.
Nithari Killings
The CBI was given the responsibility of investigating the murders of dozens of children in the Nithari village near Noida, UP. This was after the local police was found to be incompetent and lethargic in their investigations. The serial killings were in the Indian and international media for weeks since decomposing bodies were found outside the house of the accused Moninder Singh.
Dawood Ibrahim case
In August 2007, the CBI asked its Pakistani counterpart, the Federal Investigation Agency, for its comments on recent media reports about the detention of Dawood Ibrahim by authorities in Karachi.
Sister Abhaya murder case
Sister Abhaya murder case concerns a nun, who was found dead in a water well in Saint Pius X convent hostel in Kottayam, Kerala on 27 March 1992. Altogether there were five CBI inquiries into the murder case so far without any tangible results. Kerala HC had observed that even the CBI had lied in this case.
It was later revealed that Catholic lobby had been preventing the truth from emerging and had even arranged psychological training the guilty clergymen and nun who were found in a compromising position by sister Abhaya
Kerala Highcourt views
Kerala highcourt found that CBI also lied in this case .dated Augest 26 2008
Kerala High court recommended to take action against CBI officer Agarwal for giving false information and editing the CD, which he received from forensic lab Bangalore .
CBI Academy
CBI Academy at Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, started functioning in
1996. The Academy is situated towards east of Delhi, in Ghaziabad District of Uttar Pradesh at a distance of around 40 km from New Delhi Railway Station and about 65 km from Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi. It is spread over of 26.5 acres (107,000 mē) of lush green fields and plantations with a covered area consisting of the Administrative, Academic, Hostel and Residential Blocks. Prior to that a small Training Centre was functional at Lok Nayak Bhawan, New Delhi only for conducting short term in-service courses. CBI then, was dependent on State Police Training Institutions and NPA, Hyderabad for training basic courses of Dy.SsP, SIs and constables.
The Academy now caters to the training needs of all ranks of CBI. Training facilities for certain specialised courses are also made available to the officials of State Police, Central Police Organisations (CPO), Vigilance organisations of public sector undertakings, banks and government departments and Indian Armed Forces.
CBI & Recent Controversies
In spite of its fame for being India's premier investigating agency, the CBI has recently come under heavy criticism for allowing itself to be debased by political influence.
Management Quality Of The Leadership:
The Central Bureau Of Investigation is a highly fragmented collection of Officers with a strong bias towards the Officers on deputation. It has a sizeable cadre of Officers recruited directly.This cadre of Officers is the repository of the Investigative skills that the organisation is known for. The Recruitment Rules of the organisation are so framed that no officer of this cadre can ever occupy a position of leadership or that of director of the organisation. Sh K. Madhavan, S Sen, who guided the Investigations in the Harshd Mehta and ISRO spy ring cases respectively superannuated as Joint Directors. The leadership is dominated by the IPS cadre of Officers on deputation who ensure that they retain all the senior level posts for their cadre. This vested group of Officers controls the decision making processes and frames the Rules for all the Human Resources.
In popular media
The CBI film series is a set of Malayalam films directed by K. Madhu starring Mammootty as Sethurama Iyer, a sharp and highly intelligent investigative officer of the CBI. Till 2005, four films were released in the series:Oru CBI Diary Kurippu (1988, A CBI diary note) and Jagratha (1989, Caution), Sethuramayyar CBI (2004) and Nerariyan CBI (2005, In pursuit of truth CBI).
Further reading
The 24th Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Working of CBI 2008
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